Hi, though this comm seems to have slowed quite a bit, I would like to offer up a drabble to this wonderful fandom.

Title: DefiantAuthor:ianthe_waitingRating: TDisclaimer: Carnivale and its characters are the property of HBO and the show's producers; no copyright infringement is intended.Genre: DrabbleWarnings: S.1 spoilersSummary:#1 – Defiant. She would try to be defiant to the end.Word Count: 627 words.Author's Notes: Drabble: a slice of fic in less than 1500 words.

Prompt 1 – Defiant

“No, Mama!”

Sofie’s dark eyes burned into her mother’s paralyzed face, trying to convey in more than words her anger at what her mother suggested.

“I can’t do that,” Sofie uttered with less force as the whisper of Apollonia’s astral voice flitted in and out of Sofie’s head.

Sofie brushed her mother’s dark luxurious hair a little harder than before, Apollonia said no more.

You don’t get a chance to meet many men worth marrying in the carnival, Apollonia had said, Clayton Jones would make any woman happy. Sofie disagreed. Didn’t Mama see how awkward it was for her?

Another soft whisper, a plea, made Sofie stop and regard her mother’s eyes.

“It is not right, Mama. Jonesy and me—it would be…”

Sofie closed her eyes after setting her mother’s brush aside.

“If you can’t tell me why, Mama, then don’t even talk to me about it,” Sofie growled, whirling from her mother’s bed and stalking through the bus they called home to fall into her usual chair at the table she usually served the customers.

It had started after Babylon, and everyday Apollonia’s pleas grew more and more insistent. The catatonic woman wanted Sofie to marry, wanted Sofie to leave the Carnivale, wanted Sofie to die…

Sofie knew that her mother would never tell her why, but Sofie had had a feeling, ever since Milfay, that her mother feared something great and terrible.

Another whisper, a plea and a warning, and Sofie covered her ears for lack of knowing what else to do to stop her mother’s voice from seeping into her mind. However, as the words grew stronger, Sofie slapped her hands on her knees and jumped to her feet.

“It is not like that, Mama. He’s just some dirt-farmer boy from nowhere. I don’t…” she yelled, but trailed as Apollonia’s mental voice shouted back at her daughter.

Sofie was sure that everyone in the camp heard her words, as loud as they were, but it was more important to Sofie that Apollonia hear.

Sofie closed her eyes again just as Apollonia’s moved toward her, not seeing how the woman’s lips moved just a little, to curve around half-formed words that would never be heard by Sofie’s ears.

With a groan, Sofie spun on her heel and kicked at the doors of the bus, running outside. Sofie had learned long ago that if she ran far enough, she could be free of Apollonia’s voice in her head. And so, Sofie ran, past the rousties, past the cook tent, out into the stark nothingness of the New Mexico flats, red dust kicking off the backs of her heels.

Ben Hawkins—the boy did not know which way was up, and Sofie had no time for boys like that. For her mother to suggest that…

Sofie stopped running, looking across the flats to the craggy rocks on the horizon, a bloody sun setting in the west. There was something in the west her mother feared, and something Sofie felt calling her Roma blood. Apollonia’s warnings and pleas had something to do with the west, but Sofie could not see her mother’s dreams as she used to—it had been Milfay, it had been Ben Hawkins that clouded everything.

Sofie stared at the bloody sun, setting her face against it. It did not matter what her mother said, Sofie would defy her mother’s empty warnings. She knew herself, and she was not totally defenseless.

All the same, Apollonia’s words haunted Sofie’s thoughts.

You will try and be defiant, Sofia Agnesh, defiant to the last. But when the ‘last’ comes, you’ll fall just as we all will.

This is one of 30 drabbles (of 30 prompts) I am working on. To read more go here. Pairings/rating vary.